This paper investigates the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new agri cultural technology in Ghana. We use unique data on farmers' communication patterns to define each individual's information neighborhood. Conditional on many potentially confounding variables, we find evidence that farmers adjust their inputs to align with those of their information neighbors who were surpris ingly successful in previous periods. The relationship of these input adjustments to experience further indicates the presence of social learning. In addition, applying the same method to input choices for another crop, of known technol ogy, correctly indicates an absence of social learning effects. (JEL D83, 013, 033, Q16)

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Learning About a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana

Household-level panel data from a nationally representative sample of rural Indian households describing the adoption and profitability of high-yielding seed varieties (HYVs) associated with the Green Revolution are used to test the implications of a model incorporating learning by doing and learning spillovers. The estimates indicate that (i) imperfect knowledge about the management of the new seeds was a significant barrier to adoption; (ii) this barrier diminished as farmer experience with the new technologies increased; (iii) own experience and neighbors' experience with HYVs significantly increased HYV profitability; and (iv) farmers do not fully incorporate the village returns to learning in making adoption decisions.

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Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture

Farmers’ adoption of conservation agriculture: A review and synthesis of recent research

Research on the adoption of rural innovations is reviewed and interpreted through a cross-disciplinary
lens to provide practical guidance for research, extension and policy relating to conservation practices. Adoption of
innovations by landholders is presented as a dynamic learning process. Adoption depends on a range of personal,
social, cultural and economic factors, as well as on characteristics of the innovation itself. Adoption occurs when
the landholder perceives that the innovation in question will enhance the achievement of their personal goals.
A range of goals is identifiable among landholders, including economic, social and environmental goals.
Innovations are more likely to be adopted when they have a high ‘relative advantage’ (perceived superiority to the
idea or practice that it supersedes), and when they are readily trialable (easy to test and learn about before adoption).
Non-adoption or low adoption of a number of conservation practices is readily explicable in terms of their failure
to provide a relative advantage (particularly in economic terms) or a range of difficulties that landholders may have
in trialing them.

Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders

The objective of this paper is to determine the ability of farmers in Africa to detect climate change, and to ascertain how they have adapted to whatever climate change they believe has occurred. The paper also asks farmers whether they perceive any barriers to adaptation and attempts to determine the characteristics of those farmers who, despite claiming to have witnessed climate change, have not yet responded to it. The study is based on a large-scale survey of agriculturalists in 11 African countries. The survey reveals that significant numbers of farmers believe that temperatures have already increased and that precipitation has declined. Those with the greatest experience of farming are more likely to notice climate change. Further, neighboring farmers tell a consistent story. There are important differences in the propensity of farmers living in different locations to adapt and there may be institutional impediments to adaptation in some countries. Although large numbers of farmers perceive no barriers to adaptation, those that do perceive them tend to cite their poverty and inability to borrow. Few if any farmers mentioned lack of appropriate seed, security of tenure, or market accessibility as problems. Those farmers who perceive climate change but fail to respond may require particular incentives or assistance to do what is ultimately in their own best interests. Although experienced farmers are more likely to perceive climate change, it is educated farmers who are more likely to respond by making at least one adaptation.

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The perception of and adaptation to climate change in Africa

This paper is a revised version of Staff Working Paper 444 It reviews various studies which have provided a description of and possible explanation to patterns of innovation adoption in the agricultural sector It therefore covers both empirical and theoretical studies The discussion highlights the diversity in observed patterns among various farmers' classes as well as differences in results from different studies in different socio-economic environments, and reviews the attempts to rationalize such findings Special attention is given to the methodologies which are commonly used in studies of innovation adoption, and suggestions for improvements of such work through the use of appropriate economometric methods are provided The diversity of experiences with different innovations in different geographical and socio-cultural environments suggest that studies of adoption patterns should provide detailed information on attributes of the institutional, social and cultural setting and their interactions with economic factors These may be an important element in explaining conflicting experiences

Feder, G. Just, R. Zilberman, D.

Papers

Adoption of agricultural innovation in developing countries : a survey (revised)